Pierre Joseph Olivier Chauveau was born on May 30, 1820, in Charlesbourg, Quebec.

He was a Canadian lawyer and politician, the first Premier of Quebec. He attended the Petit Séminaire de Québec (1829-1837) and in 1841, he was admitted to the bar. In 1844, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, serving until 1855, when he was appointed Superintendent of Education until 1867. He was responsible for the establishment of the first three major teacher-training colleges, the founding of the Journal of Public Instruction, of which he was administrator and editor, and the Journal of Education for Lower Canada, and the establishment of the Board of Education. Following the Confederation of Canada in 1867, he served as the first Premier of Quebec and he was also elected to the Canadian House of Commons representing Quebec County. In 1873, he resigned from both offices and was appointed Speaker of the Senate of Canada by Prime Minister John Macdonald, an office he only held until 1874. From 1878 to 1890, he was a professor at the Faculty of Law of Laval University in Montreal, and he served as its dean from 1884 to 1885. Chauveau had a life-long interest in literature and public affairs. He was the author of the novel “Charles Guérin: Roman de moeurs canadiennes”. From 1841 to 1855, he contributed letters to the New York newspaper, Le Courrier des États-Unis, commenting on the political situation in Canada from the French-Canadian perspective. He was one of the co-founders of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste of Quebec City in 1842 and of the Société canadienne d'études littéraires et scientifiques in 1843. He was also a president of the Société littéraire et historique de Québec and a member of the Institut canadien de Québec, serving as its president in 1851 and 1852. He also served as a vice-president of the Association de la bibliothèque de Québec.

In 1840, he married Marie Louise Flore Masse (1825–?). He died on April 4, 1890, in Quebec City, Quebec.